4 Montgomery County doctors face charges in 8 overdose deaths
Four Montgomery County doctors have been taken into custody and are facing felony charges as a result of an investigation into their medical practices, and prosecutors say three of the doctors prescribed drugs to eight patients who died of overdoses.
Three doctors — Emad Mikhail Bishai, 47, of Spring; Miguel Juan Flores, 68, of Conroe; and Fadi Ghanem, 57, of Spring — each has been charged with committing unprofessional or dishonorable conduct by prescribing to a person they knew or should have known was abusing controlled substances, a third-degree felony, and of prescribing without a medical purpose, a state jail felony, according to the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office.
Bishai, whose medical office is in The Woodlands, was charged with four counts on each charge stemming from the overdose deaths of four patients. Flores, whose medical office is in Conroe, faces one count on each charge in the overdose death of one person. Ghanem, whose medical office is in The Woodlands, faces three counts on each charge in the overdose deaths of three people.
Bishai has also been charged with improperly delegating professional medical responsibility that stems from his practice of presigning Schedule II prescription forms, a third-degree felony.
Dr. Hussamaddin Al-Khadour, 49, of Houston, whose medical office is in Shenandoah, was charged with one count of operating a pain management clinic without being properly registered, a third-degree felony, and one count of writing a false or fictitious prescription, also a thirddegree felony.
Bishai, Ghanem and Al-Khadour could not be reached for comment. Reached by phone, Flores said he had not retained a lawyer and could not comment on the case.
In June, search warrants were carried out at the doctors’ offices and medical and other records were obtained, according to the district attorney’s office.
Bishai’s office was seized through a civil asset forfeiture suit because it was allegedly used or acquired through organized criminal activities, multiple violations of the Texas Health and Safety Code and insurance fraud, prosecutors said.
“The excessive prescribing of highly addictive controlled substances has been major fuel added to the fire of the opioid epidemic our nation faces,” Assistant District Attorney Tamara Holland said in a written statement. “The Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office is committed to doing whatever it can to address this deadly, criminal conduct.”
The investigation was completed through a data-driven project funded by a nearly $360,000 federal grant that the county received a year ago to help prosecute cases involving the diversion of drugs intended for medical use. Montgomery County is one of three of the grant’s recipients in the U.S.
Through compiled data on overdose deaths as reported by the Texas Department of Public Safety, the district attorney’s office said, it linked some fatalities to the doctors.